Education of Tourist Guides: Case of Croatia

In the last few decades tourism has developed into a complex service industry. Local destinations have to offer only their best in order to satisfy tourists. In that respect, tourist guides represent an important part of the tourism industry. Local tourist guides should represent the local community and show the most important and the most interesting sights of a given destination. In order to become a tourist guide one must obtain proper education and an appropriate certificate. Taking into account the tourist market needs and incoming tourist groups, tourist guides should be adequately prepared. The purpose of this study is to define the importance of education within the tourism industry and particularly tourist guides. The educational program should provide the necessary knowledge and practices in order to ensure a high quality of future employees in the tourism sector. The education program, the institutions where the program can be attended as well as the criteria for exam are prescribed by law. Croatia is a tourism-oriented country and has an increasing number of tourist arrivals. The total contribution of tourism in the GDP is around 30%. It can therefore be concluded that tourism is a very important industry for Croatia. The present research is carried out by the case study method. The main findings of this study are showing a strong disagreement between the theoretical findings and given government and organizational efforts in the education program. There are several possible reasons for this situation: belated development, an inadequate approach to tourism development etc. Recommendations for further studies are focused on finding reasons for the current situation and forming suitable procedures to overcome these limitations, in order to form a high quality education and ensure high quality service of local tourist guiding. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.